User Guide to Intersectoral Partnering: Pt. II

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II. DEFINITION OF INTERSECTORAL PARTNERSHIPS

Intersectoral partnering is the process of creating joint inter-organizational initiatives across two or three sectors. This strategy generates sustainable solutions to development challenges by combining the distinct interests and resources of different actors. The three sectors of society are:

Graphic showing three sectors of society: Business, Civil Society, Government.

Business: private, for-profit entities that produce private goods and services.

Civil Society: private, nonprofit organizations that express community beliefs and values through service provision and advocacy, and contribute to collective goods and services.

Government: general and specialized governance institutions at the local, national, and international levels. ISPs are usually formed with representatives from local democratic governance institutions.

While ISPs do not require the involvement of donors, the latter often play important roles in stimulating and providing resources for institutional change and organizational development. Because of the development results and systemic changes ISPs can foster, donors are experimenting with them across the world. In particular, ISPs can reinforce the decentralization efforts that donors are increasingly supporting.

Box #1: TWO EXAMPLES OF INTERSECTORAL PARTNERSHIPS

Example 1 - Bulgaria: A Trisectoral Partnership
The Local Government Initiative has established, in concert with intermediary service organizations, a process that joins local government, the burgeoning NGO community, the business sector, and news media in learning and applying the tools of community partnership and problem solving. Direct grants from USAID to the Foundation for Local Government, the National Association of Municipalities, and five regional associations were critical to getting these organizations in place, being responsive to their constituents, and developing action plans supporting local government reform (USAID/Bulgaria R4 2000).

Example 2 - Philippines: A Bisectoral Partnership
As a result of a major power crisis in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Philippine government sought private sector support in the form of a partnership. The private sector was needed to provide capital for additional power capacity, assistance in achieving project development and implementation goals more rapidly, and training and technical assistance to local government units and implementing agencies. The government provided fiscal incentives, such as tax breaks and access to free land and fuel, and cost-sharing of those projects deemed the most difficult to finance. These provisions enabled private sector firms interested in investing in the electric power infrastructure sector the opportunity to do so under attractive commercial and financial terms. Thus, such a partnership produced results consistent with both the investors' financial and commercial objectives and met the government's main need: additional power capacity. Today, the private sector has a significant role in the Philippines electric power infrastructure sector (Marks et al. 1997).

Form and Function

A fundamental premise of an ISP is that it involves key stakeholders. This enhances the prospects for success by mobilizing a wider base of resources and support, and generating greater commitment through participation in defining solutions to development issues.

Intersectoral partnering can address local issues that no one sector has the resources and ability to manage alone. This model is based on the understanding that sectoral differences are beneficial in creating innovative solutions. Cross-cutting challenges that require this type of approach often include community economic development, the environment, human rights/labor, and social welfare issues such as health and education.

Partnering involves sharing visions, capacities, and power to build something different from the individual visions of each partner. The key element is that actors collaborate across sectors, ideally in ways that capture synergies from the interaction of their complementary strengths and weaknesses, and find institutional arrangements that foster openness, honesty, and commitment. As the partnership progresses, trust is built, and partners explore new opportunities in a more open way.

ISPs induce a wide range of linkages in diverse settings. Tailoring the strategy to a particular country and problem context is critical. Linkages may vary in duration, scale of activity, and form. A partnership may be either permanent or semi-permanent. It could be short term, such as a taskforce-like coalition with only the resources that partners bring on an ad hoc basis from their organization, or it could be a more permanent organization with its own staff and income. The developmental impact occurs when a new institutional arrangement becomes widespread as a solution to significant problems, but is flexible in adapting to local conditions.

Donors can play a variety of catalytic roles in fostering ISPs. For example, a "synergistic agent" is one specific type of ISP that USAID has successfully sponsored in a number of missions. This type of ISP is a central coordinating body with representatives from each sector.

Box #2: SYNERGISTIC AGENTS

The Centre for Technology Development (CTD) is an example in India of an economic development synergistic agent that is strengthening specific industries. This includes food production, where CTD is coordinating with universities, local farmers' organizations, women's business incubators, government programs, and large food and agribusiness corporations. CTD strengthens the entire production chain from the quality of seeds and trees planted through production, marketing, and sales. It has a sustainable strategy that includes generating revenue from its own activity (Waddell 1998b).

Process and Result

Intersectoral partnering is both a process and a result. Partnerships in themselves are a valuable result since they provide a strong foundation for future collaborations. ISPs also complement decentralization efforts. They build upon the growing consensus within the donor community that development cooperation is most effective when it reinforces local initiatives. As a process, ISPs increase social cohesion and can produce both sustainable structural and social change.

Box #3: A TESTIMONIAL

Now, and for the foreseeable future, it is in the best interest of the U.S. and other Western countries to stay engaged in Russia and to provide targeted support to continue the momentum. Sustainable partnerships are among the mechanisms most likely to cement the U.S.-Russian relationship into the new century (USAID/Russia 2000 R4).